LIFT's capacity to achieve its goals rests on its close collaboration with county and community resources, its research-based, proven operational model, and the extensive experience of its Directors and Advisors, many of whom are recognized leaders in the fields of pediatric nutrition, health and prevention; strategic planning and finance; and program development, delivery and evaluation.
Caren is an expert at communicating and connecting with people – in a multitude of arenas. Her experiences as a children’s rock & roll singer, creative arts company owner, and clergy person, have taught her what it takes for people to create positive experiences in their lives. Today, as an Executive Sales Director with comF5, she focuses on helping people connect and create better lives for themselves, incorporating video internet technology.
Dr. Joelle K. Greene has directed community assessment and program evaluation for National Community Renaissance since January 2006. A professional evaluator since 1991, she has developed and implemented quantitative and qualitative outcomes-oriented evaluation systems for social service, health care, early childhood education and K-12 educational programs.
Formerly Dr. Greene served as Executive Director of Research and Evaluation for the Urban Education Partnership in Los Angeles and as Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University.
Dr. Greene holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from The School of Organizational and Behavioral Research at Claremont Graduate University and was a National Institutes of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a professional member of the American Evaluation Association.
Cío Hernández is the Bilingual Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner for Marin County Department of Health and Human Services. She has led several youth groups covering a spectrum of issues, both therapeutic as well as social, and continues Cio's Angels, a community leadership group consisting of youth activists who want to make a difference. Cio's Angels have organized 24-hour "Relay for Life" teams, have presented in conferences across the Bay Area, and have volunteered at community events like the Marin County Fair and Binational Health Week.
Cío is also the community liaison in her role with Community Health and Prevention Services of H&HS. She facilitates diverse focus groups across the county as a way to better understand |what is important in the areas of quality service, prevention, and increasing access to services and communities. She also serves as coordinator of the Binational Health Week Events and Community Health Events in Marin County.
Additionally, she is faculty for Gerry Grossman Seminars, teaching licensing prep courses and CEUs in Law and Ethics, Child Abuse Prevention, Domestic Violence, Clinical Supervision, Issues with HIV, Vicarious Trauma, Internet Safety for Children, Attachment, and Human Diversity.
She currently sits on the Institutional Review Board for Kaiser Foundation Research Institute as a community member, teaches Human Diversity and Law and Ethics in the Graduate Department of Counseling Psychology at Dominican University, and runs a small private practice.
Cio serves as the chair for the Marin First Five Children and Families Commission, where she is able to advocate for the needs of families from prenatal to five years of age. She encourages all adults to advocate for the needs of youth and children where she understands that her most important job is being a mother of her 10 year-old son, David.
Michael graduated from Stanford University with a degree in History and completed his graduate studies in education at Dominican University.
A lifelong competitive swimmer, water polo player and aquatic sports coach, Michael taught swimming to severely disabled children and adults at the Betty Wright Swim Center in Palo Alto. He proposed, developed, funded and implemented the therapeutic swim center at the Osher-Marin JCC. Cultivated support for the project from the Easter Seals Society, United Cerebral Palsy Association of Marin County, Marin County Office of Special Education, the Arthritis Foundation and the Buck Foundation.
Appointed Health and Wellness Director at the Osher-Marin JCC, Michael subsequently became the Associate Director responsible for the Health and Wellness department, membership, youth services and camping, the early childhood program, the thrift store and senior programs.
Currently, Michael is Executive Director of Congregation Rodef Sholom overseeing all services, programs, staff, operations and strategic planning for 4,500 members. He was voted Bay Area Executive Director of the Year 2006.
Stacy Kaiser is a licensed psychotherapist, relationship and body language expert, author and media personality. With over one-hundred television appearances in the last year on major networks including CNN, NBC, CBS, HLN,MSNBC and FOX, Stacy has a reputation for bringing a unique mix of thoughtful and provocative insight to a wide range of topics. In addition to her numerous television appearances, her expertise and perspective have been solicited by major corporations, public institutions, government agencies and philanthropic organizations.
As a psychotherapist on both VH1's Celebrity Fit Club and Lifetime's DietTribe, and guest expert on Tyra Bank's, Greg Behrendt's and Larry Elder's nationally syndicated talk shows Stacy Kaiser has gained a reputation for helping people face the truth that is holding them back from leading a life filled with a generous balance of responsibility, fun and freedom. After providing counseling to thousands of individuals both in her private practice and the media, Stacy has identified ten critical areas needed to develop the skills necessary to become a successful, happy and fulfilled adult.In her new book "How to be a Grown Up - The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know" published by HarperCollins, Stacy opens with a provocative quiz that helps the reader gain insight into his or her current level of life mastery. In the following chapters, she breaks down the readers strengths and weaknesses to guide them towards improving in the ten areas so that they can maximize their success and ultimately their life.
A passion for improving the lives of the under served in her community led to Stacy's work with Southern California's premier family resource center, Friends of the Family, where she has worked with battered women, teen parents, abused children and families in crisis for the past 13 years. She has also been engaged by organizations including the FBI, Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles Unified School District, Kaiser Permanente and Hughes Aircraft to implement workshops and handle third party mediations.
Stacy Kaiser received her B.A. in Psychology from California State Univeristy, Northridge and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and received advanced training in the areas of human and child development, as well as emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
Alan is the Managing Partner of Changeworks Global, Inc.
Alan has been a consultant to business, specializing in leadership and organizational development for over 25 years. During this time he has been the organizational development specialist for William M. Mercer, Inc., owner of his own consulting firm, and in management as Director of Clinical Services for a unit of Children's Hospital of San Francisco.
Currently, Alan works with organizations to achieve outcomes in: defining and realizing preferred futures; large-scale organizational transformation and culture change; integration processes for mergers and global coordination; ERP change management design and implementations; and leadership and team effectiveness.
Johnathan Logan, Jr. is the General Manager of the Marin City Community Services District, which is Marin City's local government. As general manager, Logan manages a variety of community services is also the district's representative in interagency affairs and community collaborations. Johnathan has worked in local government for the past five years both in Marin City and Seattle, WA. He is a much-needed conciliator, a role model for young people and a well-liked representative of the community who has the ability to work cooperatively with county officials.
Logan graduated from the Branson School in Ross. He has a Masters of Public Administration degree from City University of New York, Baruch College and a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK. He is also a proud Nation Urban Fellow, a national network of public administrators working in urban communities across the country. In his spare time, Johnathan enjoys eating out and spending time with his family.
Johnathan joined LIFT's Board of Advisors as he believes the major theme in the Marin City community is youth development. "Young people are the future leaders, citizens who will be making decisions about where Marin City goes. We have to try to engage with youth professionals, schools, churches and other folks who have an interest in seeing kids live healthy lives."
Steven is currently a professor in exercise physiology in the Kinesiology Department at California State University, Northridge. His research publications have focused on the effects of different exercise modalities and exercise protocols on participants’ fitness. He has served as President and Executive Director of the Southwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine, been the Wellness Coordinator for the Los Angeles Fire Department and provided mentoring to the Physical Activity Specialists for the Network for a Healthy California.
For the past 6 years, Dr. Loy has been introducing and advocating the value of the kinesiology trained professional to the public health arena. He believes this professional is the missing link to our solving the public health crisis of physical inactivity and obesity. We know the problem and we know the solution. What is missing is the professional who understands the depth of the problem, can design and deliver health education and physical activity programs, and teach the population on how to adapt their lifestyle appropriately. A kinesiology trained individual is the right person for this important job.
Mike Macedonio is the President and Partner of the Referral Institute. The Referral Institute is a training, coaching, and consulting company specializing in proactive referral systems. Michael and his business partner Dr. Ivan Misner co-authored "Truth or Delusion, Networking in the Real World" which has hit several best sellers list including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon.
Elisabeth (Beth) Misner is the corporate vice chair for BNI, the world's largest international business referral organization. She is a contributing author to three bestselling business books, serves as a developmental editor for BNI, and is currently writing her own series of inspirational books.
Beth is a first degree black belt in karate, a t'ai chi instructor and also a sports nutritionist. She is the co-founder and administrator for the BNI-Misner Charitable Foundation, whose focus is children's educational programs.
Gary D. Novack, Ph.D. is a board certified clinical pharmacologist, educated at several UC campuses. In his decades of work in the biomedical community, he has specialized in developing new local therapies for eye and skin disease. In the 1980’s, he directed glaucoma development at Allergan. He is currently president of the consulting firm, PharmaLogic Development which he created in 1989. He has been involved in over 100 regulatory applications for clinical studies, about two dozen of which have resulted in approved products. He has published over 160 articles. He was a director of Inspire Pharmaceuticals, the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and a Regent of the University of California.
Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, Adjunct Professor of Public Health at San Diego State University. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine since 1996.
He is a past President of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, served on the Secretary's Council for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and, from 1993 to 1995, served in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health of HHS. He has served as a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, as a charter member of the Community-level Health Promotion Study Section of the NIH Center for Scientific Review, as Chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) Health e-Technologies Program and a Senior Advisor to the RWJ's Active Living Research program.
His research explores how health care providers and systems can enable patients and consumers to optimize health promotion and prevention related behaviors, particularly in the areas of physical activity, diet and lifestyle. Dr. Patrick has authored over 135 scientific articles, book chapters, commentaries and abstracts. He has served as a consultant to numerous organizations including Pacific Bell, the Hartford Foundation, Smith Kline Beecham.
Teri is a Project Manager in Health Promotions at Kaiser Permanente. She serves as project manager for Healthy Marin Partnership, which coordinates the triennial Marin County Community Needs Assessment. Teri also works with over 100 local community organizations and partners to facilitate Parent University, Peer Summit and the Play Fair Collaborative. Teri is also an active leadership member of the Marin County Alcoholand other Drug Prevention Collaborative. Previously Teri served for five years with the Marin Healthcare District and eight years with the law firm of Nielsen Mersksamer. Teri did her undergraduate work at University of Washington and advanced coursework at the University of California Berkeley.
Mark is the founder and publisher of MarksDailyApple.com, one of America's most popular and provocative health blogs with over 10 million page views per month. Mark's acclaimed 2009 book, The Primal Blueprint, reached the "#2 Best-Seller" in March 2010, and sold through its first two hardcover print runs in less than a year. Mark is credited with spearheading the "Primal" health movement that challenges many well-accepted elements of conventional wisdom in favor of simple, sustainable lifestyle behaviors modeled after our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and supported by cutting edge research in epigenetic, evolutionary biology, and exercise physiology. Mark is a former 2:18 marathoner and fourth-place finisher in the Hawaii Ironman World Triathlon Championships. An expert on all facets of diet, nutritional supplementation, and athletic training, Mark operates a supplement company called Primal Nutrition, appears regularly as an expert guest on Known the Cause, a nationally syndicated cable talk show, and is a peak performance adviser to numerous Olympic and professional athletes. Mark lives with his wife, Carrie, and children, Devyn and Kyle, in Malibu, California.
Executive Director, Center For restorative Practice
Marcus is an ordained minister and a Marriage and Family Therapist with more than 20 years experience working in educational and case management settings with youth and families. Marcus has been a member of the national advisory council for the National Wraparound Index. Marcus became the Executive Director of CFRP August 1, 2008. Before this time, he served as Clinical and Associate Director of CFRP. He brings more than 20 years of experience working with high risk kids and families to his role in the Family Network project. He also has a private practice in Marin County where he works with children, teenagers, single adults, married couples and couples engaged to be married. He also provides consultation and facilitation for many local agencies in Marin and the Bay Area.
Hasan graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Photography and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine with an MSci in TCM. In 2005 he founded Eightfold Design | Creative Strategists, a web-centric marketing firm focused on inbound marketing for companies, schools, small businesses and non-profits. Hasan is also a licensed acupuncturist, a life-long martial artist and the author of Tai Chi for the Athlete. He is a Marin native and lives in Novato.
Annie Watt grew up in Marin County, graduated from Simmons College in
New England with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and is currently a nurse at
Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego. She has volunteered for Amigos de
Las Americas where she spent a summer in Michoacán, Mexico, educating school-
aged children about health, art, and the environment.
Her passion for health promotion and education in low-income communities
made her a great fit for LIFT. Annie was instrumental in helping LIFT successfully
co-host the first ever Bay Area-wide celebration of World Diabetes Day in November
2011. She has a strong ability to build strategic community partnerships which help
to further LIFT's mission.
